No. 9 seeded Kentucky women’s basketball (22-9, 8-8 SEC) defeated No. 16 Arkansas (12-20, 1-15 SEC) 94-64 to open its postseason with what head coach Kenny Brooks referred to as a “fresh start.”
In the Wildcats’ final game of the regular season, they fell to No. 3 South Carolina 60-56, Brooks expressed that despite the outcome of the regular season, the Cats would be approaching this postseason as a clean slate.
“We’re 0-0 now. Brand new ball game. Brand new ball game – and that’s the approach because it does not matter, it doesn’t matter what you did in the regular season, everything is going to be wiped clean now. It’s a fresh start,” Brooks said.
With that logic going into the 2026 SEC Tournament, Kentucky can now say it’s 1-0 in tournament play, and its first win of the “new” season is exactly what it needed.
Not only did the win over Arkansas ensure Kentucky’s bid continued through the SEC Tournament, it also helped push the Cats towards their goal of securing a chance to host the first rounds of the NCAA Tournament. It was also just simply a win that helps make that mentality even stronger.
The first aspect that is proof of a fresh start is that Kentucky not only started the matchup strong, but it managed to finish it off strong as well.
With the Cats this season, we have typically seen them do one or the other, however, never really both.
Kentucky capped off the first quarter leading the Razorbacks 29-10, and finished off the game strong to solidify its 30 point margin over Arkansas. The Cats led by as many as 36 points.
Sure, the second quarter wasn’t a great display from the Cats, where they lulled a little in scoring and energy, causing Arkansas to outscore them 23-13. However, it didn’t prove to be any kind of issue when Kentucky came out of the half hot to push the score from 42-33 to 49-33 before the Razorbacks put up their first points of the quarter.
The third quarter was reminiscent of the third quarter blitz – something that the Wildcats were known to do early on in the season, particularly in non-conference play.
Kentucky nearly tripled Arkansas’ output in the third quarter, dominating the scoring 28-10.
Despite consecutive playing days, the Wildcats will be that much better if they can manage to carry that same mentality throughout the tournament and fight through fatigue they may feel by days two or three.
Yet, that potential fatigue doesn’t worry Kentucky – another aspect of its fresh mentality in this tournament.
“At this point, [coach] Katie’s gonna be over there telling her kids that they have the advantage because they got an extra day of rest, we’re gonna go back and tell our kids that we have the advantage because we got the nerves out, we got the jitters out, we got to actually see it and feel it,” Brooks said after the game. “So, it’s just going to be a test, a will of ways.”
Moreover, Wednesday’s game felt as though it exemplified all of Kentucky’s, and all of its players, best attributes.
Tonie Morgan, Jordan Obi and Clara Strack all had double-doubles, where each of them were playing into their greatest strengths.
Morgan was creating movement and opportunities in the offense with an impressive assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.33, Obi was utilizing her physicality to dominate in the paint and even felt confident enough to try and score from the arc – which she did – and Strack had three blocks.
Those three were also fueled by Amelia Hassett and Asia Boone, who both were exceptional from the 3.
Hassett (18 points) finished shooting 6-11 from the arc, and Boone (10 points) finished shooting 3-6.
“Their ability to hit 3s really opens up everything for our offense so, when they’re on, we’re all on,” Obi said about their performance.
Moreover, the Kentucky bench, without Obi’s contributions, had six points and 10 rebounds.
Brooks had a lineup of mostly reserves on the court with four and a half minutes left in the game, each of them having a contribution in some way.
This is impressive considering a narrative haunted Kentucky at one point this season that not only did Brooks not look at his bench at all beyond his sixth-man, but also that they didn’t have the depth to contribute in a meaningful way.
Even though it’s only the first game of the tournament, it finally felt as though every piece of the game was working in Kentucky’s favor.
“This is one of the first times, you know, that I’ve been like that, where I’m not worried about seeding, or whatever, because it’s different and I know this team can play with anybody,” Brooks said before the start of the tournament. “As long as I have them ready, and they feel comfortable and feel confident, we’ll go anywhere. We’ll go anywhere and play anybody.”
Kentucky women’s basketball will take on No. 8 seed Georgia (22-8, 8-8 SEC) on Thursday, March 5, with tipoff set for 11 a.m. EST. Game action can be streamed on the SEC Network.
